The Charleston Post Courier advocated forcing bikers to wear helmets. The following responds to that editorial.

Helmet Law
In a Jan. 5 editorial you advocated South Carolina institute a mandatory motorcycle helmet law. You cited the costs to the public of treating head injuries after accidents involving people without helmets.
You should have taken a position that helmetless bikers should shoulder their own medical bills.

You are quite correct that, if someone pays for another's medical costs, the payer should have the authority to limit his cost exposure by limiting the activities of those so insured.

So The Post and Courier wants to force cyclists to wear helmets.

Following this logic, we should refuse to authorize knee replacements for people who are overweight and cancer treatment for those who have smoked. It has happened in the United Kingdom in Manchester and York with their single-payer system.

Your solution to coerce helmet-wearing treats the symptom not the root cause, which is that someone else pays the medical bills.

The Post and Courier could endorse a law that prohibits the public from paying for those who have accidents without a helmet or mandates that helmetless cyclists have special insurance or a post a medical bond.

Or you could advocate abolishing government health care in any form and let individuals make personal arrangements for their medical bills.

Coercing additional restrictions to compensate for bad policy never ends. Those restrictions will develop problems, demanding more coerced regulations ad infinitum.

Fix the root problem, and let us get on with our lives, taking risks, enjoying the rewards of doing so or accepting the pain of failure if it doesn't work out.

We do not need a nanny.